Charles II — Charles the Bald — was granted the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy and crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 875, and the Arles mint responded by updating its coinage to reflect imperial rather than merely royal authority. The window for these issues was narrow: Charles died in October 877, giving this type a production life of roughly two years. Arles had long been the commercial and monetary hub of Provence, and its output carried weight across Mediterranean trade routes the Carolingians were then struggling to control against Saracen pressure from the south.
Charles II — Charles the Bald — was granted the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy and crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 875, and the Arles mint responded by updating its coinage to reflect imperial rather than merely royal authority. The window for these issues was narrow: Charles died in October 877, giving this type a production life of roughly two years. Arles had long been the commercial and monetary hub of Provence, and its output carried weight across Mediterranean trade routes the Carolingians were then struggling to control against Saracen pressure from the south.